So has anyone tried comparing the sound quality of the HDVD800 before and after installing the firmware patch (eliminating the hiss from ultrasonic noise issue)?

It would obviously have to be a "from memory" type of comparison since the patch is not really reversible (unless of course you own two HDVD800 that you can compare--one with the patch and one without).

planning to do that. Should have gotten the HDA600 but couldn't wait. But hey, atleast the HDVD800/V800 combo sounds better to my ears than the V800/V200 combo, especially with the use of a balanced cable.

planning to do that. Should have gotten the HDA600 but couldn't wait. But hey, atleast the HDVD800/V800 combo sounds better to my ears than the V800/V200 combo, especially with the use of a balanced cable.

From all the discussions that I've seem, the HDVD800 appears to be one of the best solid state amps for the HD800 (and perhaps the T1 as well). It also appears that going to better DACs further exposes just how good the amp section really is. I was starting to think maybe the HDVA600 might have been a better deal but then I realized I was forgetting one of the goals I had in buying the HDVD800 in the first place, and that was portability.

If you have a HDVD800 with an external DAC that is better than the one in the HDVD800, the amp section will sing with it, and the HVA600 would be identical in sound. However, unlike the HDVA600, anytime you want, you can just unplug the HDVD800 and carry it anywhere and still get really good sound from a digital source out of it. It's far easier than also taking your external DAC along with you

So, as a little experiment the other day, I took my docking port to RCA adapter cable and plugged my iPhone 4 into the RCA inputs of HDVD800. I set the RCA gain switch on the back of the HDVD800 so it was about the same level as the other inputs. Man, My iPhone never SOUNDED so good! I do convert down during iPhone syncing to AACs at 192 kbps so they'll fit (all 122 albums fit on my iPhone), and of course it doesn't sound as good as the internal DAC with uncompressed files, but it was a nice little sonic surprise.

We needed that extra review and your's gives a really nice and honest exposure to this product.

What pushed me into writing the review was when I looked at the reviews available online and not seeing one that I felt properly reflected my experience of using it. I've posted what I think in this thread, but I don't think that's nearly as helpful as putting everything into a single review. I'm glad it turned out alright.